Leaders duel over coronavirus relief bill
The only consensus is that there is no consensus.
By NOLAN D.
MCCASKILL
08/02/2020
10:47 AM EDT
Updated:
08/02/2020 11:51 AM EDT
Top
negotiators for a coronavirus relief bill couldn’t even agree on what they
agree on Sunday, indicating that Democrats and Republicans are still a ways
away from clinching a deal.
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said both parties have yet to come to agreement on the
fact that the U.S. must defeat Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel
coronavirus, an issue a bemused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was adamant
that there is agreement on.
Pelosi also
blamed President Donald Trump for “standing in the way of” enhanced
unemployment insurance for tens of millions of Americans, the exact language
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows used to describe Democrats.
And the
California Democrat suggested that Senate Republicans are in disarray over
unemployment benefits while Democrats are united in support, but Meadows noted
that only Democrats voted against a weeklong extension of the $600 benefit in
the Senate last week.
The
competing comments showed how far apart House Democrats and the Trump
administration are on sending a relief package to the president, even as two
major federal benefits — a $600 weekly unemployment payment and an eviction
moratorium — expired late last week.
They also
come a day after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said negotiators
had “the best discussions we’ve had so far.”
“I would
characterize it that way, but we still have a long ways to go,” Meadows told
CBS’ John Dickerson on “Face the Nation.”
The White
House chief of staff said he and Mnuchin have spent the last few days trying to
reach a consensus to “at least start negotiating.” He characterized Saturday’s
talks as “a step in the right direction.”
Staffs are
working Sunday, and the principals will meet again Monday, according to
Meadows, who admitted that “I’m not optimistic there will be a solution in the
very near term.”
Democratic
leaders have similarly struggled to say when both sides will reach a deal.
“We’ll be close to an agreement when we have an agreement,” Pelosi told Martha
Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”
On CNN’s
“State of the Union,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told Dana Bash
that while “they are in a better place today than they were the day before,” “I
don’t know how close we are to a deal.”
Pelosi
framed defeating the virus — which has infected more than 4.6 million Americans
and killed more than 154,000 people in the U.S. — as “one of the contentious
issues that we have to deal with.”
“I was
surprised that the speaker said we don’t agree on the need to kill the virus,”
Mnuchin said on “This Week,” moments after Pelosi’s segment. “We absolutely
agree on the need to kill the virus.”
Asked what
she would say to Americans who lost their unemployment benefits, Pelosi
responded: “Talk to President Trump. He’s the one who’s standing in the way of
that.”
Using
identical language in a later interview, Meadows told “Face the Nation”: “It’s
important for your viewers to understand that if you have unemployed people
that have lost their enhanced unemployment, they need to call their Democrat
senators and House members because they’re the ones standing in the way of
having those extended right now.”
In a pair
of tweets Saturday, Trump accused Pelosi and Schumer of blocking “desperately
needed unemployment payments, which is so terrible, especially since they fully
understand that it was not the workers fault that they are unemployed” — and
claimed that the Democratic leaders “have no interest in making a deal that is
good for our Country and our People.”
Mnuchin
said Trump is “very concerned about the expiration of the unemployment
insurance” and that Republicans proposed a one-week extension “so that while we
negotiate a longer-term solution, at least all those people don’t lose their
money, and I’m surprised that the Democrats won’t agree to that.”
“They are
insistent on having this as part of a larger deal,” he added.
Pelosi
argued Sunday that Democrats are unified in their support for the $600 benefit
while Senate Republicans are in disarray over an alternative $200 proposal,
which she said fails to meet the needs of working families.
“So the
idea that they made a proposal is really not actually factual,” she said.
Clyburn
acknowledged that both sides are always trying to maximize their leverage in
negotiations but said it’s Republicans who are “playing games with us.”
“I don’t
know that this is an honest negotiation when you want to leave town and not sit
around the table and do what needs to be done for the American people to have
some security and some safety in trying to live their lives,” Clyburn said.
“That’s what we are trying to do. This ‘every week, one more week, two more
days,’ that’s not the way you do things.”
Meadows
lamented that Democrats are “stonewalling” piecemeal legislation. “Hopefully
that will change in the coming days,” he said, highlighting another
disagreement with Democrats, who want a full package instead of a narrow,
short-term solution.
He said his
question to Clyburn is if he would encourage Pelosi to consider a standalone
bill for enhanced unemployment, bringing that to the floor and encouraging the
Senate to do the same.
“I can tell
you, it’s the only thing that that we’ve run out of money [on],” Meadows said,
noting that there’s more than $1.4 trillion left in unspent funds from previous
legislation, including $100 billion each for state and local governments and
small business aid, as well as more than $9 billion for testing. “The one area
where we don’t have the money is for enhanced unemployment benefits.”
Trump wants
a deal done quickly, but “there are different things that are very contentious”
on both sides, Mnuchin said. The Treasury secretary cited Democrats’ push for
more than a trillion dollars in aid to state and local governments as an
example but maintained that “there’s definitely areas of agreement” on issues
like the Payment Protection Program and direct payments to Americans.
“Mark
Meadows and I will be back there every day until we reach an agreement,”
Mnuchin said. “We understand there’s a need to compromise, but on the other
hand there’s also a big need to get kids into school, get people back to jobs
and keep the economy open and keep people safe.”
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